MOSCOW, December 8 (Itar-Tass) — On Wednesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin came to the Central Election Commission with documents for registration as a candidate in the presidential election. The CEC is to check the documents within ten days and issue a certificate.
Vladimir Putin became the first candidate at presidential election 2012, who not only stated his participation, but also submitted documents to the election commission, the "Rossiiskaya Gazeta" writes. He did it for the first time, although had had run for president twice already. Earlier, he was a self-nominee, and the procedure at the CEC was completed by his advocacy group and agents. This time, Putin's candidacy was proposed by the United Russia party at its Congress at the Luzhniki Sports Complex on November 27. At the first stage of the Congress, President Dmitry Medvedev brought forward the proposal to nominate Putin for presidential candidate, and Vladimir Putin stated his consent.
The "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" writes that during the procedure, Vladimir Putin was not talkative. He said "thank you" once, "thank you very much," twice and "I ask" once. He left without asking when the CEC will register him as presidential candidate. It will be his third ascension to political Olympus, with the only difference that he was a self-nominee at the 2000 and 2004 elections.
Other possible candidates to the post have not come up with the documents, yet the notifications to run for president went sent by five self-nominees, the "Moskovsky Komsomolets" reports. Former Vladivostok mayor Viktor Cherepkovs, Other Russia leader Eduard Limonov and healer and psychic Nikolai Levashov will run for president. Grigory Yavlinsky, a possible Yabloko candidate, is undecided, as he doubts he will be able to canvas two million signatures at the time when "the whole country is lying under the Christmas tree."